What Lurks in the Hearts of Men
by AshNight1422
Summary: Vanessa had the typical upbringing until her father passed away and her grandfather Lamont Cranston became her legal guardian. He taught her everything she knows and now that heroes need more help, she's stepped out of the shadows prepared to do anything within her power to stop the Light, and bring back the stolen kids. (Takes place during True Heroes, then AU probably after that)
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note: **Hello everyone. Just so we're clear this does take place during the episode True Heroes in S3 and with the break in between I'm just running with what I think would happen, so this is pretty AU anyway, especially with my own OC getting thrown in. And yes I realize my grammar is and can get pretty bad but any criticism is good criticism. Let me know what you guys think and if you like the story. Enjoy. =)

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Chapter One

_It had been years since the Shadow had last been seen fighting crime or even mentioned anywhere as the world had forgotten him, and had __long forgotten__ his many accomplishments that had happened over the years, especially when defeating his foe Shiwan Khan whom had dreams of world domination. __No one knew where he went and no one knew the truth, he had vanished entirely once there were more heroes to defend the innocent. I guess he felt it was time to hang up his guns and fedora never to use them again, or, at least until I found them in the __attic__ after __my dad's funeral._

A young girl sat on the floor of an old looking spacious attic in a nice looking black dress that she was getting dirty with dust, and whatever else may have been on that old floor. A repeated thud kept happening as she was purposely bouncing a nerf football off the nearby wall so she could catch it, and repeat. Her fair face was flushed pink and her blue eyes had a tint of red to them from crying so much earlier. Even her long dark hair had been up but she had let it down and her headband she had on sat beside her. There was a mix of emotion on her small features it was hard not to see as there was confusion but more sadness than anything, now she felt like she had no one. The thoughts in her head of her father leaving this world was enough, she thought she was at least sort of lucky she never knew her mother as the woman died in childbirth. The feeling of losing them both would have been unbearable, she thought, because losing her father was enough.

The football she was bouncing she didn't manage to catch this time because she had been in her own little world, and it had smacked off the wall, and right past her. It hit against something hard and she could hear it. With a roll of her eyes and a sigh she was on her feet to go fetch the toy and as she was searching for it she found it, it had been next to something big and flat, with an old looking sheet over it. She had picked up the nerf toy but as she saw closer that the big thing was a trunk, curiosity got the better of her. Ditching her toy she pulled the old sheet off the trunk gingerly while seeing it didn't have a lock.

Quickly she looked at the door to the attic and listened for anyone that could possibly be coming up this including her grandfather whom she affectionately always called Pop-pop. Her hands went to the lid of the trunk and at first it was hard to open, it was like no one had literally opened it in years, and then it finally budged. The first thing she saw when she opened the trunk was a red scarf and fedora as both looked to be in good shape, it seemed the trunk had done it's job well keeping out critters an insects. But as she reached in and lifted up the hat and scarf she dug deeper past that and found a very old looking black suit, what she found at the bottom though, made her eyes widen.

"Whoa..." She whispered softly as she pulled up old leather gun holsters with the guns still in them of course and as she pulled one of the guns out, a ring fell out also. It was becoming confusing, but her head snapped to the door as she heard it open nearby. In all of the snooping, she didn't hear anyone coming.

The attic door opened and an older man walked through the threshold that was in black just as she was. "Vanessa?" His voice was smooth as he called out to her, but his eyes widened, and he stopped in place as soon as he saw what she was doing. "Put that down!" He bellowed while quickly coming towards her at the trunk.

Vanessa actually let out a squeak of fear and had dropped the guns back into the trunk unceremoniously as she had a look on her face of worry from being busted. The old man quickly closed the gap and as she was clear, he closed the trunk with a pretty loud crash. "Don't ever come up here, do you hear me?!" His voice was raised as he turned on her but as soon as he saw the girl's face he immediately softened since it looked like she was going to start crying again just from being yelled at.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, come here." He had quickly gotten down on the floor beside her where she had ended up in the chaos and his arms went around her to hug her, and hold onto her comfortingly. The young girl Vanessa sniffled as she held onto her grandfather, "I'm sorry...I-I didn't mean to..Pop-pop." She choked out as he smoothed out her hair on the back of her head with his hand while he held onto her.

"No, no, I'm sorry darling for yelling at you. I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself. I didn't expect you'd find my old weapons up here. I hid them when your dad was a boy, I guess I forgot they were up here." The way he spoke was always believable even when he was telling a lie because of how smooth he seemed. She still sniffled but was quickly beginning to calm down since her grandfather was comforting her, but she then saw the ring that had fallen out of the gun holster. Her hand picked it up from the floor but her grandfather didn't see it yet, but she could see it was some sort of opal that was beautiful.

Vanessa gently pulled away from her grandfather's arms but also showed the ring to him too so he could see it. "Why were you hiding a ring, Pop-pop?" She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him and he had a bit of a puzzled look as he was going to try to play it off like he had no idea about it, but he didn't get the chance.

"You're the Shadow." Her voice had been pretty blunt and matter-of-fact as she glanced from the ring to the older man's face for confirmation, he was a quiet stone wall, but she persisted. "Aren't you." Her eyebrows raised as she waited for him to answer her.

His face was still like stone as he looked at the young girl and he thought of many things he could do, he could try to convince her easily that he wasn't. He could cloud her mind. No, he couldn't do that to his own blood, he didn't want her to resent him later if she found this information out for a second time then remember this moment on top of it. With a bit of a defeated sigh he smirked a little bit as he looked at the girl, slowly shaking his head. "How do you even know about the Shadow?" He was genuinely curious.

A weak smile came onto her lips as her small shoulders shrugged. "Dad used to talk about him sometimes, and he let me read some comic books." She said but a look of disgust came onto the mans face as he said, "I never did like those books, they'll rot your brain."

"So you are the Shadow!" Vanessa squealed out but Pop-pop put a finger to his lips to shush her and she quieted pretty quickly with a sheepish look. "Sorry..." She whispered.

That same smirk returned to his face as he looked at her, a hint of pride shown through. She was indeed his blood after all, and he expected nothing less. "You're just like your father, he found out too. Long time ago. You're both too smart for your own good." He said as he tickled her side for a moment, making her giggle before settling.

"If dad found out then why didn't he become the Shadow after you stopped? He could of kicked so much butt!" She said excitedly as he chuckled. "How do you know he didn't?" He asked her as she stopped and looked like she was pondering before he spoke again.

"No, that life was very dangerous even back years ago. And there's heroes now that are doing well. Plus your grandmother threatened to shoot me with my own guns if I tried to let him do what I used to do." He said as he thought back fondly of his late wife.

Vanessa was giggling somewhat from what he said but she grew quiet as she was thinking before she said anything again. "I want to do it." She said seriously as he raised an eyebrow and replied a simple, "no." Before he began to stand up.

After finding out her grandfather was the Shadow it took weeks to convince him to teach her what all that he knew and it was a good distraction from losing her father as her grandfather was now her legal guardian. Her grandfather Lamont Cranston finally relented since Vanessa was a very stubborn child, and all of this happened when she was seven.

Now seventeen and graduating high school there was talk about kids being kidnapped all over and it was also sometimes on the news, metahuman trafficking. Against Lamont's wishes she had donned the fedora and his guns to join the fight. She was able to do as he used to being able to change her appearance to people. In all of it, it had gained the attention of one of the Justice League. Batman. The caped crusader had contacted her in secret and now they were traveling in one of his many modes of transportation in order to get her to Bialya in a hurry.

"You'll be infiltrating an auction for metahumans and you may encounter another team that is being sent in." He was speaking to her while piloting and continued. "The mission is to disrupt or destroy the auction and save as many as you can that are being held."

"Oh that's all? And here I thought it was serious." Vanessa had a bit of a smirk on her lips as she was different now compared to years ago when she began this journey with her grandfather. While they traveled she had gone ahead and gotten her long black coat on, fedora, and scarf as she already had her guns underneath the coat that had belonged to Lamont. Her blue eyes changed from blue to black and her nose changed shape, smaller, just something to make her unrecognizable at least as she was preparing for the battle.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Alrighty here's the next chapter and I hope I did justice (get it?) to the episode because it was definitely really good. And I hope you guys like this, any criticism is certainly welcomed. I'm really enjoying writing this so I really really hope you guys are enjoying it too.

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Chapter Two

The sound coming from the batplane was so small that it was doubtful anyone heard them coming as Vanessa's black eyes looked out the side to see the ground moving down below, and it was turning off darker now. It would be night time by the time they'd reach Greater Bialya as Batman piloted the plane and she was more than ready to get in on whatever kind of mission this was. Of course she knew it had to do with rescuing kids and teens that had been trafficked, being auctioned off like cattle. The thought made her blood boil when she let herself think about it, but she tried not to, she remembered what Lamont said sometimes during training. "Don't let emotion get the better of you." Now just thinking back on his words she took a deep breath to remain steady. Now that they were entering Greater Bialya's airspace, the young woman noticed Batman switch a button on.

"The goal is to remain undetected." He said simply which had Vanessa nod in agreement. "Sounds reasonable.." She said in response as she was seeing some kind of large compound come into view when she looked. They didn't get really close.

"Is that it?" But as she began to see men with what looked like military issued weapons and also tanks, it made her eyebrows raise as her question got answered immediately. "Wow. I guess it is." She said, at least a little impressed.

Now just hovering nearby this was her stop as the top opened for her. "Good luck. Shadow." Batman said to her as she beamed underneath the scarf without saying anything. It didn't really occur to her that this all might be a test for her.

Immediately when she vacated the plane and dropped down to the ground she did lessen her landing with her ability's, being able to move things with her mind somewhat just as Lamont could. Along with doing that she made herself invisible to people. Now she was grateful she decided to throw on her boots instead of her converse for this, the sand around probably would have gotten into her sneakers.

Just moving forward quickly it had been unexpected as she saw two red beams come out from somewhere in the sky, blowing up one of the tanks there on the grounds, Shadow even saw one of the men that had been near it get thrown a good distance away. Then another mysterious thing was a guy that dropped out from somewhere in the sky as she stopped to see. Some guy in dark clothing and a face mask that covered half the face. He was quick though as he took out some of the guards with guns especially with a motorcycle, making her eyebrows raised. _He must be a part of that team Batman mentioned. _She thought to herself, it was obvious he was pretty strong as well.

Then ice quickly froze over the motorcycle in the guys hands with some kind of blast as she looked over to see another guy except he was blue all over, he literally looked like he was made out of ice. And then the both began fighting except they were also talking like they were old buddies, it actually confused her more than anything. In the middle of it she had reached inside her coat drawing one of the guns she had inherited, a Colt M1911. As the blue man formed a very large sharp icicle she narrowed her eyes as she aimed at it alone. It was quick as she fired and the large icicle shattered in the guys hands.

It made Junior try to reel back to avoid the kick coming to him since he had no weapon anymore. With no time to make another."Whoa!" But it was too late, he was thrown right into a car where it left an indent, and fell onto the ground. "Ow.." He managed to get out.

"Who's there?!" The guy that was left had seen the shot she took and immediately he was speaking out loud to someone. "Forager, there's someone else down here with me, is bio-ship picking up any other life forms?" He asked.

Again there was no time to check as everything was happening pretty quickly. She saw two people come out of the building as one was more huge than the other, and green. It made her eyebrows raise under her fedora as she saw these people, a girl with a mohawk, and the other guy looked like a horrible science experiment. Shimmer quickly went after Conner and Mammoth was getting lasers to the chest from the thing in the sky that was invisible, at this point, she thought it could have been a spaceship. Since the two were being kept at bay and the guy seemed to be handling himself, she remembered the auction. Her guns went back in their holsters as she took off sprinting towards the building.

When she did get inside she saw people running since the place had been fired upon also and Vanessa noticed the electricity was off, and there was security lights on, she also saw the kids that were being kept in some kind of electric green pen. There were others though that were there she could see dressed in covert type gear, and they deactivated the pen holding the teens. There were two blondes though that were ready to fight, and I knew them already, the Terror Twins. There was a big shock of black electricity though that she saw come from a gentlemen nearby, he must have been with the group, but it had taken out the twins nonetheless until he himself was struck down by a big woman. It was enough time though for the group to get moving, and she followed them as well towards the exit. Out of nowhere Vanessa saw Tuppence coming at them though, especially to the guy up front of the group. Since no one could see her she used her advantage and got ahead right between Tuppence and Nightwing in time to throw a right hook to the twin's face, but as that happened, her figure rippled like water being disturbed until she couldn't keep the mental block up anymore. Now revealed, the Shadow caught someone out of her peripheral, Tommy stood cracking his knuckles dangerously close to the group.

"Watch it!" She shouted and immediately she saw Nightwing jump at him. Then seeing another blonde woman who wasn't one of the twins, she saw Artemis go after Tuppence.

Tuppence wouldn't be so bad as Vanessa decided to help the guy with Tommy as she could see he was getting beat pretty well, and as she walked up, she was laughing softly. "Tommy Terror. There is so much evil that you have done it's honestly hard to keep it straight."

Tommy grunted before he swung a fist at her. "Yeah? And what's it to ya'?!" She quickly dodged before becoming shrouded to his mind, and in doing so, she got behind him. As hard as possible she kicked the back of his left knee to topple him though he barely did since he was pretty strong. "Ah!" It caught him by surprise than anything before he swung his arm out to try to catch her.

Vanessa got out of the way in time as she laughed softly again, her voice soft to where only Tommy could hear her. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. The Shadow knows." She said softly but before she could do anything else, Nightwing was trying again to bring down the huge man once again.

Soon the huge scuffle came to an end as Nightwing was thrown back and Artemis had landed beside him, Vanessa had also joined them, and then a pile of molten lava landed between the two groups making her look up to see where it had come from. A young man and girl were standing on a floating huge piece of earth, but she wasn't surprised. All of them ran though when prompted as the two would take care of Tommy and Tuppence.

Outside the building I saw Mammoth getting hit for the last time by Conner as he was taken care of but as he saw the Shadow, his eyes widened. "Who the hell is that?!" He said in confusion as Artemis shook her head. "No time. Everyone on board. Now!" She shouted.

The bio-ship had come down and turned off it's invisibility before it opened up to them and after Jefferson was able to electrocute Devastation properly, everyone was on the ship now in safety. The teens that had been rescued though were saying their thank you's, and I saw Brion get a kiss on the cheek from one of the girl's. Since I was a stranger, a lot of them stared at me, but Nightwing seemed to know things already.

"So. The Shadow." He said behind his face mask as his voice was a bit altered from it and Vanessa nodded her head as he continued. "Batman said he was one of his idols, one of the old heroes that retired. So who are you?" It was clear he was curious and she smiled a little under her scarf.

Artemis regarded her immediately as she raised an eyebrow, "uh...It's definitely a different person since you said he. And this is a she." She said while watching the Shadow.

"Yep, I'm definitely female. Thanks for noticing," Vanessa said teasingly as her voice sounded like herself again as she had masked that as well as her face. "He's actually my grandfather. I already know who all of you are so I guess introductions are in order since that's not really fair."

She had at least pushed the scarf down to reveal her face and took off the fedora as long dark hair fell over her shoulders, the black eyes turned to a dark blue, and her nose returned to it's normal shape along with her freckles coming back to her cheeks just below her eyes. The random transformation had all of them a bit surprised, and she heard a few whoa's from the male populace in the ship.

"I'm Vanessa Cranston." She quickly held her hand out to Dick first and then shook everyone else's hand as well.


End file.
